Scotland: On the Caledonian Canal

I must mention that for its trips (but not the extensions), Lindblad Expeditions creates Daily Expedition Reports (DERs), which are archived on their web site. Our expedition started on July 4th.

After lunch it was time to embark on the Caledonian canal.

It was a few short miles along the canal, paralleling the river Ness, to reach Loch Ness.

View Larger Map
Rain squalls came and went down the length of the Loch.

The ruins of Castle Urquhart are a popular destination, attracting full tourist buses. (It's also supposed to be a good location to view Nessie, the Loch Ness "monster," but we didn't spot her.) The visitors' center is tucked away in the hillside, not competing visually with the castle.

The section of the castle on the promontory is familiar to many from published photographs.

But the castle also extended up the hillside.

We had a good view of the inside of the tower as the ship cruised past.

Our ship was itself an attraction.

At the far end of Loch Ness was Fort Augustus, where we were to spend the night. The community began as, unsurprisingly, a fort built in 1729 to, unsurprisingly, keep an eye on the Jacobites. For the last century the fort, mostly in ruins by then, was used as a Benedictine monastery and religious school, which closed in 1998 and is now being developed as luxury residential units.

Joan and I took a walkabout. This view looks back up the length of the loch.

At the opposite end, we looked down the locks to where the Lord of the Glens awaited the morning.

We encountered David Barnes, the expedition leader, on the walkabout, and he suggested checking out the old fort/school/flats-to-be. Technically visitors are not allowed, but Joan and I figured we could blame David if any scolds were about.

Note the umbrella. It was drizzling and then not all evening, as if the weather could not make up its mind, and in five minutes you could furl the umbrella again. A few intrepid kayakers (not me!) dashed from Kytra Lock, a few miles upstream, back to Fort Augustus under umbrella power.

The after-dinner program was a whisky tasting.

Jim Russell guided us through four (or was it five?) single malt whiskys ranging from the approachable to ones strongly redolent of peat smoke, passing through what I considered 'medicinal' along the way. I was surprised to hear Jim recommend added a splash of water to the whisky; I thought true fans of Scotch single malt were supposed to abhor H2O. The water was inconveniently placed for Joan and me, but we were able to try this technique later, and it does work. It appears to 'open up' the whisky in the way that letting a red wine stand for a few minutes does. But I'm still not a whisky drinker.

The next morning we passed through the five locks at Fort Augustus, which took a while.

One of a handful of locks before we reached Loch Oich was Kytra Lock.

This video shows the typical speed of our ship in the canal, as we approach Kytra Lock. (I silenced the audio because it consisted entirely of annoying wind noise.)

The Lord of the Glens is always snug in the locks of the Caledonian Canal -- it was specifically designed to be the largest ship that could fit.

At times we had an audience.

The locks were originally powered by muscle. This capstan would hold four bars, allowing several men to push it around and around, pulling the lock doors open or shut.

Now the operator works from a console.

When the lock doors begin to open, at first you are in disbelief that ship will fit through, but, it does! (This video is also intentionally silent.)

After shepherding the ship through a lock the guests often need to take a break. This is a glimpse down one side of the lounge level of the ship, back towards the bar (lounge forward, bar aft).

Shortly after passing through this lock we passed kayaks heading the other way. We all managed to fit in the channel.

After exiting Loch Lochy, we passed through the lock at Gairlochy.

View Larger Map

David supervises at this lock.

That afternoon there was an excursion to the Glenfinnan Monument. This is the site where Bonny Prince Charlie landed back in Scotland (from France on a French ship), and raised his standard for the first time. Thus, it was the start of the final unsuccessful Jacobite rebellion, the one that ended at Culloden.

The French always seemed to support rebellions against the English just enough to annoy, but never actually overthrow, the current English regime. No real commitment or follow-through, it seems!

The top of the monument is reached by a narrow spiraling stone stairway; those going up must coordinate with those coming down to avoid gridlock. The view from the top was good.

The railway bridge in the photo is the exact same one featured in the opening of every Harry Potter movie. We would cross it on our way back to the Lord of the Glens.

There was an evocative feeling down on the beach where Bonny Prince Charlie came ashore, and it wasn't just the atmospheric lighting and the wind.

There was time for the naturalist Ian Bullock to guide us in a short walk. He illuminated corners of the landscape that reflect the time when the last Ice Age ended and first plants, then animals, and finally humans reclaimed the British Isles. Here is a prime specimen tree in a protected area, which stands out in contrast to the many-times-logged, sheep-cropped landscape of today's Scotland.

A short bus ride took us to the railway station.

Unfortunately, once we were on board the train did not even slow down, preventing me from getting a picture of the famous bridge from our railcar. Instead I must substitute a picture of that railcar, including a stealth shot of Konia Tack, our German-Scottish historian-guide.

The train took us to Banavie, where the Lord of the Glens waited for us at the top of Neptune's staircase, a series of eight locks.

This is the view from the lowest lock.

A handful of us decided to walk down to the final lock, a sea-gate, before dinner to whet our appetites. The rain came and went, providing us with one of several rainbows enjoyed on this voyage.

Here is an intriguing monument to the Caledonian Canal at the far point of our walk. No, it's not damaged; the diagonal offset represents the Great Glen Fault through which we've just passed.

Tomorrow morning we would traverse Neptune's eight-step staircase and the sea lock, and be on our way to the islands of western Scotland.